<!DOCTYPE html PUBLIC "-//W3C//DTD HTML 4.01//EN"
   "http://www.w3.org/TR/html4/strict.dtd">

<html lang="en">
<head>
	<meta http-equiv="Content-Type" content="text/html; charset=utf-8">
	<title>Study Planning Advisory Module - Help</title>
	<meta name="author" content="Manuel Ebert">
	<link rel="stylesheet" type="text/css" href="help.css"/>
	
	<!-- Date: 2009-05-11 -->
</head>
<body>
<div id="content">
	<div id="header">
	</div>
	<div class="section">
		<h1>Study Planning Advisory Module - Tutorial</h1>
		<p>Thanks for using the Study Planning Advisory Module (from now on referenced to as "SPAM").</p>
		<h2>Contents</h2>
		<ol>
			<li><a href="#1">What's it all about?</a></li>
			<ol>
				<li><a href="#11">What SPAM is and what it not is</a></li>
				<li><a href="#12">The Basics</a></li>
			</ol>
			<li><a href="#2">Adding courses to your pool</a></li>
			<li><a href="#3">A closer look at courses</a></li>
			<li><a href="#4">The anatomy of a module box</a></li>
			<li><a href="#5">The timeline</a></li>
			<li><a href="#6">The summary section</a></li>
			<li><a href="#7">Other features
				<ol>
					<li><a href="#71">Saving and loading</a></li>
					<li><a href="#72">Writing transcripts</a></li>
					<li><a href="#73">Feedback</a></li>
				</ol>
			</li>	
		</ol>
	</div>
	
	<div class="section">
		<a name="1"></a>
		<h2>1. What's it all about?</h2>
		
		<a name="11"></a>
        <h3>1.1 What SPAM is and what it not is</h3>

		<p>The Study Planning Advisory Module (affectionately abbreviated as SPAM) is a interactive tool that let's you keep track of your progress in the Cognitive Science Bachelor Programme, suggests options for picking courses or module examinations and visualises everything with a slick, responsive and thoroughly sexy user interface: it is an implementation of the study regulations enriched with data from our course database, this joining what you <i>should</i> do with what you <i>can</i> do in a single, comprehensive tool.</p>

		<p>The information presented by SPAM have <b>no</b> authority whatsoever, especially when it comes to which courses count for the optional compulsory areas of different modules, the amount of credits of the courses, the courses available and so on. So, if in doubt, do not rely on the information given here and contact your student mentor at <tt>mentoring at cogsci dot uos dot de</tt>. Having said that, all the data are generated from the (more or less authoritative) <tt>o3</tt>-Database which can be accesses on <a href="http://ikw.uos.de/lectures" target="_blank">http://ikw.uos.de/lectures</a> and are thus as accurate as possible.</p>

		<a name="12"></a>
    <h3>1.2 The Basics</h3>

    <p>So, how does it work and how do you use it efficiently? First, let's get some definitions straight. When you load SPAM, you'll see a greenish <b>panel</b> on your left, the <b>menu bar</b> on top, and nine <b>module boxes</b> on the right side of the screen. Every <b>course</b> that you take can be dragged between different module boxes. The set of all courses which are currently present in your module boxes are called your <b>pool</b>:
	
		<center>
			<img src="overview.png" />
		</center>
	
	 <p>Now, let's give things a kick start: click on the "First Semester"-package on the upper part of your side pane:</p>
	
		<center>
			<img src="click-first-sem.png" />
		</center>

	<p>You will now see a number of courses appearing in different module boxes - specifically, all the courses that are recommended to freshers. In the same way, you can also add the default package for your second semester. Assuming that you have already been studying for a few semesters, we will now look into the process of reconstructing your current study progress.</p>

	</div>


	<div class="section">
			<a name="2"></a>
		<h2>2. Adding courses to your pool</h2>

		<p>You've just seen how you can add a package of courses at once. To add any other course that is or has been offered at the Institute of Cognitive Science, use the course search field on the upper left of your sidebar:</p>
		
		<center>
			<img src="search-course.png" />
		</center>

		<p>Just enter the course's name and the slick and sexy GUI will look up all matching courses. Select one by pressing the up and down buttons on your keyboard or simply click on the appropriate course. If it is a compulsory course for a specific module, it will be automatically added into the appropriate module box. Otherwise it'll land in your "Optional and Compulsory" module box. This is the box where all compulsory courses that do not belong to any specific module (Statistics and Logics, that is) will be, together with all optional courses and your Bachelor's Thesis.</p>

		<p>Now, suppose you just added the course "Cognitive Modelling". It not being compulsory, it will appear in the "Optional and Compulsory" module box. If you want to use it for your "Cognitive Psychology" module, you can simply drag and drop it into the "Cognitive Psychology" module box:</p>
		
		<center>
			<img src="drag-course.png" />
		</center>
		<p>You can remove a course from your pool or your modules simply by dragging it into the trash bin:</p>
		<center>
			<img src="delete-course.png" />
		</center>
		<p>To get it back, simply add id again as described above.</p>
		
	</div>
	
	<div class="section">
		<a name="3"></a>
		<h2>3. A closer look at courses</h2>
		<p>You surely have noticed that the little course blobs give away more information than just their name. The different elements will now be described:</p>

		<center>
			<img src="info-course.png" />
		</center>
		
		<p>The most important thing is the grade slider: it let's you set the grade for this course. If you change a course's grade, the mean grade of the module will automatically be adjusted. In case you find the little coloured blobs that indicate the module association hard to read:</p>
		<center>
			<table>
				<tr>
					<td><img src="../bin/badge-ai.png" />Artificial Intelligence</td>
					<td><img src="../bin/badge-cl.png" />Computational Linguistics</td>
				</tr><tr>
					<td><img src="../bin/badge-info.png" />Computer Science</td>
					<td><img src="../bin/badge-psycho.png" />Cognitive Psychology</td>
				</tr><tr>
					<td><img src="../bin/badge-math.png" />Mathematics</td>
					<td><img src="../bin/badge-bio.png" />Neurobiology</td>
				</tr><tr>
					<td><img src="../bin/badge-ninf.png" />Neurocomputer Science</td>
					<td><img src="../bin/badge-phil.png" />Philosophy of Mind</td>
				</tr>
			</table>
		</center>
		
	</div>
	<div class="section">
		<a name="3"></a>
		<h2>4. The anatomy of a module box</h2>
		<p>Again, we tried to make everything pretty much self-explanatory:</p>
		<center>
			<img src="info-module.png" class="sketch" />		
		</center>
		<p>The most interesting part about the module box is probably that it allows you to take a module examination: once you've dragged enough compulsory and optional compulsory courses into the module box, the button on the lower left will flash green. Click on it and you can select to add either an oral examination or hand in your certificates. In the latter case, the grade will be determined by the weighted average of your course grades, rounded down to one digits after the decimal point. In the former case, you can select your grade by moving the slider that appears to the left or right, just as you are used to from courses.</p>

	</div>
	<div class="section">
		<a name="5"></a>
		<h2>5. The timeline</h2>
        
        <p>If you click on "Switch to Timeline" in your menu bar on the upper right, the blackish Timeline view will fly in. This view allows you to reorder your courses in time by thus placing each box into the time slot of the semester in which you took this course. Again, it's a simple as drag'n'drop:</p>

		<center>
			<img src="timeline.png" class="sketch" />		
		</center>
		
		<p>The benefit of keeping your courses in timely order is that, while you rearrange your courses on the Timeline, in the background your courses will be automatically annotated with the course keys and lecturers that gave that course in that specific semester. These annotations will be important if you want to print a transcript. Also, you will get an overview on how many ECTS credits you gathered each semester.</p>
		
		<p>If the Timeline view does not allow you to drop a course on a specific slot, this is most likely because this course was not offered in that semester. If you think that's wrong, use the Feedback-Button to tell us which course you wanted to move, which semester you wanted to move it into and what exactly went wrong.</p>
		
		<p><i>Hint:</i> SPAM will take a guess about the year you started studying based on the year you took the first course, and add all other courses according to this year and the suggested semester of the course. Hence you can save yourself some time by first adding a single course, e.g. Foundations of Cognitive Science, dragging it into the appropriate time slot, and then using the first semester package buttons - your courses will be automatically added to the right time slot.</p>
		
		<p>To get back to the module box view, click the "Switch" button in your menu bar again.</p>
		
		
	</div>

	<div class="section">
		<a name="6"></a>
		<h2>6. The summary section</h2>
		
		<p>Below the course search boxes in the side panel, you'll find a short summary of your current status. Most of it is pretty much self-explanatory, so just observe what happens to your summary as you work with SPAM.</p>
		
	</div>
	<div class="section">
		<a name="7"></a>
		<h2>7. Other features</h2>
		<a name="71"></a>
		<h3>7.1 Saving and loading</h3>
		<p>Notice that you didn't have to enter any sort of password until now? Well, this is going to change if you want to save your data. Just click on "save", enter your RZ username and password, and your data will be securely and anonymously stored on our server. A "Log out" button will apear. To get back your saved data, click load. Easy-peasy lemon squeezy, right?</p>
		
		<a name="72"></a>
		<h3>7.2 Writing transcripts</h3>
		
		<img style='float: right; margin-left: 10px;' src='transcript.png' /><p>Although this feature is still experimental, you can click on 'Transcript' to get your current pool exported as a, well, transcript. In the transcript, can should edit your name, the course titles and keys for those missing a key (such as courses entered by other users). Using the toolbar on top, you can change the order of the courses and the style of the grades.</p>
		<p>You can then print the transcript and take it to the examination office to get it signed, along with all certificates for the courses that appear on the transcript.</p>
		
		<a name="73"></a>
		<h3>7.3 Feedback</h3>

		<p>We know SPAM is awesome, but we want to make it even better, and we need your help with that. Click on "Feedback" at any time you feel that there's something we should know. If it is a bug report, please describe exactly how to reproduce the effect and tell us which browser and operating system you use. If you expect a reply, include your name and your eMail-Address, as feedback is generally being sent anonymously.</p>
		
	</div>

</div>
</body>
</html>
